Dr. Berndt's research deals with assessing the sources of productivity growth and how productivity is measured. The focus of his recent research has been on the changing dynamics of the health care industries. Dr. Berndt has examined how medical innovations have affected the costs of treating selected diseases over time, factors affecting the globalization of clinical trials (particularly into emerging economies), incentives to induce R&D into third world diseases, how industry funding of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration through user fees has affected review times and safety withdrawal rates, and the impact of direct-to-consumer marketing of prescription pharmaceuticals on drug utilization.

In other research, Berndt has assessed how illness and its treatment affect individuals' ability to function at work. He has implemented methods for adjusting prices for changes in quality in the pharmaceutical, health care, personal computer hardware, prepackaged software and personal digit assistant product categories. He has also published research on the structure of the advertising services industries.